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Open source is a key that can unlock many doors: tremendous learning, compelling career benefits, and industry-wide impact.
Every software engineer inevitably consumes open-source software, but they rarely contribute back. **Let's change that**! The transition from open source *consumer* to *contributor* might feel daunting, but the rewards are enormous.
This course covers everything you need to contribute meaningfully to existing open-source software projects. What you'll learn by the end:
- 🚀 Understand the benefits of contributing to open-source
- 🤯 Set up the right mindset for working in open source
- 💨 Learn how to demystify a new codebase
- 👩🏽💻 Master the code and submit changes to it
You'll learn directly from the former Head of Open Source at Meta. James also runs his own sizeable [open-source project](https://github.com/tinyplex/tinybase). What's included:
### Open Source Terminology
Let's remove any confusion about the terms you've likely heard thrown around: projects, repos, issues, and pull requests. We'll talk about what exactly open source is and why it has so many benefits for the industry and for you.
### Discover How To Contribute To Open Source
With so many organizations and individuals involved in open source, it can be daunting to decide where to contribute. A few critical ideas are covered here:
- Finding something you use (which you may not even realize is open-source)
- Finding companies active in open source development
- Evaluating a project's health so you don't waste your time
### Learning The Codebase
We'll cover tips and tricks to make sense of a large project: how do you understand the basics, the most important modules, and learn the social aspect of open-source contributions?
We'll also cover the recommended steps when making commits and landing changes. Ideally, your contributions get reviewed quickly while building trust with the project authors.
